Clear your heart of all other thoughts and ignore everything else. Subjugate yourself to the Master of all, and cling to Him with your entire being. Then the Almighty will cause all powers and alien desires in the world to disappear, leaving behind no effect whatsoever.
R’ Chaim continues: “A person must implant within his heart the knowledge that ‘G-d is the only true power and there is no force in the universe besides Him.’ He must make himself completely dependent upon G-d, paying no heed to any other power or will in the world... When he does this – making his mind entirely subservient to Hashem and totally focusing his thoughts on the One G-d, blessed be He – then the Almighty will cause all forces and desires in the world to be null and void against him, and nothing will have any effect upon him whatsoever... Whatever he declares — will take place, and he will be able to perform many wondrous acts and miracles that are in opposition to the natural forces of the cosmos...”
The Belzer Maggid, Rav Menashe Yisroel Reizman, related that his wife's grandfather, R’ Eliezer Dovid Ganzfried, was a survivor of Auschwitz. Every survivor of the camps had a number burned into their arm by the Nazis. However, R’ Ganzfried had a second number engraved on his arm. But this number was stricken out, it had a line going through it, indicating it was void. There is a very moving story behind this.
When he arrived at Auschwitz he was a mere 12 years old. At the entrance to the camp stood the monster Mengele, (may his name be blotted out). Mengele was doing the "selektzia" on the poor Jews: Right, Left. There was no way to avoid him or escape. He would evaluate each inmate by his height and appearance of health and decide: "Left" meant to die with a Kiddush Hashem. Right meant to be enslaved in the work camps.
Miraculously, in spite of the fact that he was a mere 12-year-old, he was sent to the right to the work camps. However, that cursed villain would come again every several weeks to "re-inspect" his charges and do a new "selektzia." In one of these "selektzias", the rosha looked at him and sent him to the "left".
Everyone understood very well what "left" meant. They could see the smoke rising from the chimneys of the Death Camp. When he was sent to the left the young boy made a quick calculation. "If I go to the left it's my death. It's worth it for me to take a chance and sneak off to the right. The worst thing that could happen is that they'll kill me on the spot. I'm going to die anyway.”
Mengele had his back towards him, so he grabbed the opportunity and walked to the right. To his mazal Mengele's aid spotted him. He ran over to the boy and grabbed him and brought him back to Mengele and told him that he went to the right.
As he was being dragged back to the rosha the boy said to himself, “I am now in the hands of Hakodosh Boruch Hu alone.” He remembered being taught in cheider the marvelous segulah of the Nefesh HaChaim, so he immediately concentrated on it with all his might.
אין עוד מלבדו – “Nobody can help me now. Only Hashem.”
He concentrated on this as he stood in front of the cursed rosha. “Life and death are only in Hashem's hand.”
Then the miracle occurred. Mengele looked at him and told his aid, “This child belongs to the right.”
The Germans were exceedingly well organized, so when he was instructed to go left, his number had been immediately stricken through with a line to void it since he was already considered a dead man. So, they had to burn a new number on his arm. “The first Eliezer Dovid was burnt in the crematorium, but the second was still alive!”
The struggle was to live with אין עוד מלבדו even when our neshamos were seemingly in the hands of the cursed Nazis, even when we saw Mengele deciding who goes right and who goes left. Our job is to concentrate with all our might on true emunah and say with all of our soul, everything is in the hands of the Ribbono Shel Olam. ,אין עוד מלבדו this is what Dovid HaMelech is telling us.
Even when I was passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and survival was totally impossible there because death was all around me. And yet I did survive. That is the biggest proof that You are there with me! You weren’t over there, distant. You were right here next to me!
When everything is bright and rosy, then the natural tendency of the person is that this is the time to see the siyata d’shmaya. Hashem has a part in my success. The Hashgacha Elyona is not distant; it’s right here. The opposite is the truth. When everything is black, when there’s absolutely no chance to survive; only when every avenue of escape is blocked, then we can see the Hashgacha Elyona that Hashem is right here with me, guiding me, taking care of me, caring for me. Only then is His presence so crystal clear.
This is the avodah set out for us during these days of Elul in preparation for the Days of Judgment. Hashem now comes close to us and wants us to find Him.
ילדודי ודודי לני אאלול = – “I am for my beloved, and my beloved is for me” (R’ Eliezer Parkoff)
